Religious freedom and anti-bias bills announced at pro-traditional marriage gathering

Supporters of traditional marriage rallied support Thursday for three bills that would respond to a December federal court ruling that struck down Utah's voter-approved ban against gay marriage and a statewide nondiscrimination law.

Supporters of traditional marriage rallied support Thursday for three bills that would respond to a December federal court ruling that struck down Utah's voter-approved ban against gay marriage and a statewide nondiscrimination law.

LEHI — Supporters of traditional marriage rallied support Thursday for three bills that would respond to a December federal court ruling that struck down Utah's voter-approved ban on same-sex marriage and a statewide nondiscrimination law.

The three bills are sponsored by Sen. Stuart Reid, R-Ogden, who asked more than 1,000 people gathered at Thanksgiving Point to speak out against a "sexual stratagem" that has divided political loyalties and threatens religious liberty.

"Ladies and gentlemen, do not allow the loss of religious liberty to be the inevitable inheritance you pass onto your children and their children because you would not sacrifice for their freedoms of religion and religious conscience," Reid said.

The event sponsored by the conservative Sutherland Institute and First Freedoms Coalition was the largest of three similar First Freedom Forums held in St. George and Logan to rally support for the bills.

While the bills are still being drafted, neither Reid nor Sutherland President Paul Mero provided any details on what they would entail. However, general descriptions indicate they would protect individual religious conscience rights, require religious freedom instruction in public schools, and establish a nondiscrimination law that "avoids sexual politics."

Reid's nondiscrimination proposal would be an alternative to SB100, another anti-bias proposal that would ban discrimination based on sexual orientation and gender identity in housing and employment practices.

Reid's anti-discrimination proposal would only be introduced if SB100, sponsored by Sen. Steve Urquhart, R-St. George, gets a hearing. Urquhart's proposal cleared a Senate committee last year but wasn't debated on the floor.

"As a member of the committee, I voted against the legislation because I believe that homosexual activity is immoral," Reid said, acknowledging that his decision was discriminatory.

But he explained that society has always discriminated against immoral behavior, and last year's committee vote was the first time Utah lawmakers have "supported something immoral with special protections."

In an interview, Reid said his bill would supersede the municipal nondiscrimination ordinances that have been passed in 18 Utah cities, including Salt Lake City.

Mero said only three complaints have been filed under Salt Lake's ordinance and they were dismissed.

"Utah does not have a discrimination problem, unless mere political disagreement is now called discrimination," he said.

A bill that Reid won't hold in reserve is his proposed Religious Liberties Amendments. The legislation would prohibit the government from forcing someone to violate their religious conscience, unless there is a compelling state interest in doing so.

Such laws are not unprecedented and are patterned after the federal Religious Freedom Restoration Act, which Congress passed in 1993. But after the U.S. Supreme Court ruled four years later that the law couldn't be applied to individual states, legislatures began passing their own such acts.

So far, 18 states have Religious Freedom Restoration Acts on their books, while 11 state supreme courts have indicated they would apply such standards in religious freedom claims, said Tim Schultz, state legislative policy director for the Ethics & Public Policy Center's American Religious Freedom Program in Washington, D.C.

"If you look at states that don’t have RFRAs, they are quintessential Bible belt states where there has been a perception that religious freedom is not under threat because of the culture," Schultz said.

Utah's uber-conservatives are fighting for their right to force their own
cherry-picked views of morality on every citizen in the state.......kinda like
they have always done. I guess they don't like the fact that a growing
number of people
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Matt is an enterprise team editor. Before, he wrote about faith how it is lived, how it intersects with society and how current trends affect religious practice. He has worked for more than 12 years as an editor, most more ..